(October 18, 1880-August 4, 1940)
Born in Odessa, Ukraine
Birth name is Vladimir Yevgenyevich Zhabotinsky
The best known Jewish orator in the first half of the 20th Century
Co-Founded the Jewish Legion of the British Army (1917)
Credited with laying the foundations for the Zionist movement
Established the Alliance for Revisionists-Zionists in 1923, along with Beitar, Hatzohar, and Irgun
Advocated Jewish education reform in Eastern Europe and Palestine
Wrote the famous essay, 'Instead of Excessive Apology'
First name translates roughly as 'wolf' in Hebrew

Why he might be annoying

He has been adopted as a national icon by many religious Israelis, many of whom do not realize that he was an avowed atheist.
He went back & forth on a separate state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict throughout his life.
He spent most of his career in the shadow of his mentor, Theodore Herzl.
He failed to appoint a clear successor after his death, resulting in in-fighting within Irgun and the Zionist movement.
He plotted a revolt in British-occupied Palestine over the restriction of Jewish immigrants into the country, but the beginning of WWII put the kibosh on it (1939).
His early career consisted of churning out tawdry romance novels.
He frequently used the term ‘yid’ in his oratory for dramatic effect.
He wrote ‘Our starting point is to take the typical Yid of today and to imagine his diametrical opposite ... because the Yid is ugly, sickly, and lacks decorum, we shall endow the ideal image of the Hebrew with masculine beauty.’
He was partly responsible for the schism in the Zionist movement, mainly because of his dependence on the British Government.
He had a ten-year evacuation plan to Palestine for Eastern European Jews which was vetoed by the British Government and the World Zionist Organization.
He was deeply critical of Jews who underwent Christian baptism to attain entrance into universities, referring to it as 'an epidemic of baptism' and 'pathetic bankruptcy of Jewish assimilationists' in one article.

Why he might not be annoying

He modeled his tactics on those of Italian nationalist Giuseppe Garibaldi, whom he idolized as a boy in Italy.
The Russian pogroms of 1905 had a profound effect on him, making him question why many of his fellow Jews refused to offer any resistance to the bloodshed.
He openly trained Jews in the use of rifles and handguns.
When members of his Defense Force were arrested in connection with the 1920 Palestine Riots, he turned himself in, claiming to be solely responsible and demanding their release (he was jailed alongside them).
He was given a 15 year sentence but was pardoned the next year.
He saw the Holocaust coming from a mile away; his writings are full of predictions that Jews in Eastern Europe will experience a ‘super-Pogrom’ if they did not leave for Palestine immediately.
He was barred from returning to Palestine by the British Government in 1930.
He was married to the same woman for over thirty years.
Radical feminist Andrea Dworkin accused him of being a self-hating Jew in her book, ‘Scapegoat.’
He was a mentor to future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Arthur Koestler dedicated his book, 'Thieves in the Night,' to him.
He advised his Jewish followers, 'better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it.'
He died eight years short of the founding of Israel, leading people to wonder what might have been had he lived.

In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 23 Votes: 47.83% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 173 Votes: 53.76% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 14 Votes: 50.0% Annoying